I'm thinking of a game that could help with categorical perception( I hope... posting to hear thoughts from Chris and all forum users). It is based off ideas from two other games, Super Mario World and Mega Man.

In Super Mario World (from Super Nintendo), power up blocks containing special powers must be hit from below. A certain type of power up block has different power ups in it, and you can see the different power ups change over time, so you have to time the jump to hit at the right moment to get the power up you want.

In Mega Man, you have to pick a character that has a certain power that can defeat a certain kind of enemy.

My idea for a game includes these two ideas. Each enemy can only be defeated by a weapon that is unlocked by jumping and hitting a power up that contains all the weapons. When one stands beneath the power up block, a series of different notes begins to play. For sake of example, imagine 3 tones played in succession, A C and E. The monster that must be defeated is a Sea Monster, so one must time the jump so that the note "C" is playing and a specific weapon will be unlocked that will allow the player to defeat the Sea Monster. If one jumps during A, perhaps a different ineffective weapon will be released.

Would it be possible over time that the brain would associate each note with its function of helping the player defeat these various enemies?

I suspect that might be at least somewhat effective for little kids, but I don't think it would work for older children or adults—even if it did make an impression, I'm not certain that the impression would last outside the game.

Conversely, though, I wonder how effective it would be if the player had to produce a target tone. Hm...